The great house revival

Way back in November 2017 we got a call from Animo TV who were making a series for RTE about property restoration with architect Hugh Wallace as presenter. They were filming an episode about a woman who was bringing a near derelict property in Donegal back to life, but with a fairly sensible budget of about 100,000 euro. The reason for us being included was for two reasons. Firstly because we did our cottage up on a tiny budget, and secondly because of our use of materials.

Lime-hemp plaster enabled us to provide some insulation to the inside of our stone cottage without compromising breathability, and the lime finish remains sympathetic to the origins of the cottage. We also reused and recycled a lot of materials in the build which they were interested in.

Our half day of shooting went down into about 4 minutes of air time, which is what we’ve found before, and as always we’re just relieved not to come across as complete lunatics, whilst trying to get the message out there that a different way of life is possible. This was also the last time that Missy will make a TV appearance – she was always a hit with film crews.

For a while there we seemed to have lots of media opportunities, but this is the last for now. They’ve all been fun to do, we’ve met lots of interesting folk, and seeing how the process works is always fascinating. We’ll not give up our day jobs just yet though.